Trump and Biden make final pleas at dueling Georgia rallies on eve of crucial runoffs
05 January 2021
President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden were both campaigning at events in Georgia Monday night on the eve of the pivotal twin runoffs in the state that'll determine which party controls the Senate.
The big picture: Trump at his rally in north Georgia made baseless claims about the 2020 election and warned the state's Democratic candidates would force a sharp swing to the left. Biden said at his Atlanta event a vote for those candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, would lead to the Senate granting Americans $2,000 in stimulus checks.
What they're saying: At his event in Dalton, Trump spent much of his speech talking about the presidential election, saying "they're not going to take the White House" and that he's "going to fight like hell."
- On the Georgia runoffs, Trump said "these Senate seats are truly the last line of defense." "It's really fight for our country, not a fight for Trump," he added.
In Atlanta, Biden said if Warnock and Ossoff were elected, "those $2,000 checks will go out the door, restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now."
- He added that if Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler won the runoffs, "those checks will never get there. It's just that simple. The power is literally in your hands."
Of note: Trump last month refused to sign a coronavirus relief bill and government funding measure passed by Congress that his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was involved in negotiating because he said the stimulus checks should be increased from $600 to $2,000 per person.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after House Democrats voted to increase the payments to $2,000 he did not see a "realistic path to quickly pass" such a measure in the chamber, effectively killing off the measure.
Go deeper: New Republican poll shows statistical tie in Georgia
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.